The latest research from Kaspersky Lab shows how small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) need to bridge the gap between 
smaller IT security budgets and less expertise to face the very real and growing threat of cyber-attacks. The study found that despite over half (54%) of SMBs believing that their IT security will be compromised at some point and that preparation is essential, 40% admit that they lack sufficient insight or intelligence on the threats faced by the business.
The Evolving Role of SaaS and IT Outsourcing in SMB IT Securityreport, which is launched today, lifts the lid on the threats facing SMBs when dealing with increasingly complex security challenges. Over half (55%) of SMBs worry about how trends such as BYOD adoption make managing security more difficult, and a similar number (49%) admit to feeling vulnerable to incidents affecting the third party cloud services they use.
In terms of the threat landscape, the research found that the loss of internal and confidential data is the main concern for almost half (48%) of businesses. This concern is rightly justified when looking at the actual attacks experienced by SMBs, with 41% experiencing viruses and malware causing a loss of productivity, more than any other attack vector.
Kaspersky Lab conducted the global research study of 4,395 business executives across 25 countries in conjunction with B2B International. In response to new and emerging threats, SMBs are looking to bolster their protection. However, half of SMBs (50%) do not expect the budget allocated to hiring additional IT security staff will also increase and only 10% say it will significantly increase.
For those SMBs without the necessary internal resources or available budgets, Security as a Service (SaaS) could be the answer, withalmost half (40%) of businesses putting their trust in third parties by outsourcing IT infrastructure and processes. It found that those that prioritise cloud security and business process outsourcing (BPO) are considerably happier with the efficacy of security consultancy (62%) and MSPs (59%). 17% have no plans to use an external IT security service provider but almost a quarter (23%) see this changing in the next 12 months.
Vladimir Zapolyansky, Head of SMB Marketing, Kaspersky Lab says, “The report shows that SMBs currently face a number of challenges when it comes to protecting their businesses from security threats. On the one hand, they typically have a lack of resources, budgets and security expertise that can make them attractive to cybercriminals. On the other hand, increasingly complex security environments resulting from trends such as the volume of mobile devices they need to protect requires action. This makes it all the more important to spend budgets wisely and look at other options for remaining vigilant and getting the protection they need, and by taking a SaaS approach to security, SMBs can take advantage of endpoint security solutions without having the hefty budgets of enterprise counterparts.”
Kaspersky Endpoint Security Cloud provides SMBs with an easy and intuitive way to take advantage of preventative technology, through a cloud-based management of their IT security processes.
For more information, see https://cloud.kaspersky.com/
